Yankees Hold First With Double Effort

July 16, 1994|By JACK O'CONNELL; Courant Staff Writer

SEATTLE — Second place was creeping up on the Yankees Thursday night. The right field scoreboard at the Kingdome showed Baltimore leading California in the ninth inning as the Yankees came to bat in the ninth trailing the Mariners by two runs. A loss combined with an Orioles victory would have knocked the Yankees out of first place in the American League East for the first time since May 9.

The Yankees, down 7-1 after five innings, closed to 7-6 before they gave up another run on a throwing error by Randy Velarde in the eighth. That seemed to have deflated their comeback hopes, but the Yankees were opportunistic in the ninth and took advantage of a suddenly wild Bobby Ayala to score seven times for a 13-8 victory.

``You've got to be happy the way the game ended,'' said Paul O'Neill, who had one of three two-run doubles for the Yankees in the inning. ``That's not going to happen very often with a pitcher who has Ayala's stuff.''

O'Neill's double tied the score after Ayala (3-2, 2.64 ERA), who retired the side in order in the eighth and was seeking his 14th save, walked the bases full with one out. The hit was O'Neill's second of the game and raised his average to .384 as he regained the AL batting lead from Frank Thomas of the White Sox (.382 before play Friday).

Ayala fell behind 3-and-0 in the count to Mike Stanley, who hit a drive off the right field wall to score two runs and break the tie. That chased Ayala, but the Yankees banged around Goose Gossage as well. After Velarde made the second out on a ground ball, Gossage yielded a two-run double to Bernie Williams and an RBI double to Wade Boggs.

``A game like this can pick a team up,'' said O'Neill, who has a bad cold. ``We didn't finish up well before the break and need to get off to a good start in the second half.''

``I had my eye on the scoreboard,'' Yankees manager Buck Showalter said. ``I try to stay aware of what the other clubs are doing. I think everybody checked out how Baltimore was doing.''

Not Stanley.

``For me, that's not something that's healthy,'' he said. ``I believe our destiny is in our own hands. Let's take care of what we can control and not look behind us. If we lose sight of what we have to do, they'll pass us. It was a good feeling for the whole club that we didn't die.''

The situation appeared bleak when the Mariners got seven runs and 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings off Jim Abbott (4.11 ERA). Nine of the hits were for extra bases, including a three-run home run by Mike Blowers, who also doubled twice.

But the Yankees scored four runs in the sixth, three on Velarde's eighth home run, and added a run in the seventh on a two-out double by Danny Tartabull. In the meantime, Xavier Hernandez kept the Mariners scoreless for 2 1/3 innings before callup Joe Ausanio gave up the unearned run in the eighth.

``When you're down 7-1, pitchers can lose sight of the fact there's still a game on,'' Stanley said. ``There can be a tendency for a pitcher to say, `I'll just get my work in,' and not bear down. The bullpen came through and gave us an opportunity to come back. It made for a different game.''

It also meant there would not be a different look to the standings. The Yankees, in first a half-game ahead of the Orioles, who defeated the Angels 3-2, have led the division for 64 days. Last year, they set a major league record for sharing the lead for 18 days without ever being in first place by themselves.

``It was a significant victory to a point because it shows how much the guys really want to stay [in first],'' Showalter said. ``Last year, we found out how tough it is to get there, and now we're finding out how tough it is to stay there.''